The Pat on Sports: Parents behaving badly

A few years back when I was working for the Volunteer Times my good friend and sports editor Jason Davis (now of the LaFollette Press) wrote a column about the behavior of parents at sporting events. After this basketball season I feel inclined to write one as well.
I have been to a lot of basketball games this year, both on the high school and the middle school level. I also have a new perspective to look at parental behavior on this site with the message board. I have learned that there are a lot of good parents that are supportive of their children out there. I have also learned that there are a few bad apples out there.
I figure most of the people that were bashing on the message board can be over looked because a lot of them did it before I required registration and people who can pot without giving their name tend to have more stones.
Some of the parents at the games are another matter. I have seen so many folks this year behaving like shaved apes this season. Honestly folks the refs are not out to get your kids, they did not take a payoff from the other teams, and certainly they have nothing against you personally.
Likewise, and I saw this a lot more at the high school than either middle school, the coach is the coach for a reason. It is ok to question his game plan and style of coaching. It is not ok to sit directly behind the bench and yell out what you would do different the entire evening. Seriously if you were that much better suited to coach the team then you probably be coaching somewhere.
Really folks I have to appeal to you at tournament time. These kids deserve our support not some baseless arguing amongst each other and certainly they don’t need you constantly giving the refs down the road. I know a lot of the kids that play and I would hate to see them embarrassed by some fan in the stands criticizing every call an official makes.
I don’t have children. Maybe my perspective is different. But I think we need to let these student athletes go out and do their thing and the parents and fans should support them in a positive way. They don’t need people telling the officials how to do their jobs, they don’t need somebody telling the coach how to do their job, and they certainly don’t need anybody in the stands telling them how to play.
I don’t want to hurt any feelings by writing this but we really need to consider the feelings of the kids out there on the court.

Sign up to receive Email notification of updates to the page.

Sign Up here:

  Tell a Friend to Visit
Free Tell-a-Friend by Bravenet.com ;